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A Medievalist's Perspective on Anime and ReligionSat, 17 Feb 2018 23:00:28 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/Comment on Day 6 of 10 Days to 500 Anime: Grave of the Fireflies by medievalotakuhttps://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/day-6-of-10-days-to-500-anime-grave-of-the-fireflies/#comment-5692
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 23:00:28 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8721#comment-5692Hello, Luminas! Good to hear from you! I’m sorry that I sound somewhat callous. The misery experienced by Seita is very real. Why he lost the will to live is understandable. But, our feelings can lead us astray: the amount of suffering endured by some people can lead them to think that life has no purpose or meaning. They become willing to do anything to escape the pain of living.

But, people’s lives have value even when they are suffering and even when they appear to be useless. At very least, people who persevere despite suffering and tragedy are capable of helping others who suffer to persevere. By the same token, one who gives up on life can drag other people down the same path. It may happen that we are forced to choose between a heroic good deed and taking an easier path for which no one would blame us. It’s always better to choose the former.

It is certainly wrong to target civilians, though it was impossible to completely avoid civilian casualties in the type of bombing raids conducted in WWII. Most people accepted civilian casualties were likely while targeting train stations, dockyards, factories, and other targets which had a civilian workforce. But, some bombing raids, particularly night bombing raids and firebombing, were conducted in a spirit of revenge.

I have a lot of sympathy for the German people in particular. There’s some evidence that the population at large knew nothing about the death camps, and Germans suffered some cruel atrocities at the hands of the Soviets–such as the orgy of rape when Berlin fell. Also, many of the Allies used captured German soldiers for slave labor long after the war was over, and I believe as many as two million German civilians lost their lives when they were exiled from Prussia, Silesia, and other eastern territories. The Allies were on the side of the right, but not all of their deeds were righteous.

Dropping two nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary to avoid worse horrors. In light of the extreme evils of a protracted conventional invasion of Japan, nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right thing to do. You can’t look at these bombings in isolation. They estimated one million American casualties if we invaded. Some Japanese garrisons in the island hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater lost 80% to 98% (Battle of Peliliu) DEAD–not killed and wounded accounted together, but DEAD. During the Battle of Saipan, Emperor Hirohito was even encouraging Japanese civilians there to commit suicide rather than be captured. At least 1,000 souls took him up on that offer. If the Japanese resisted in the same way on their main islands, tens of millions of dead soldiers and civilians (especially due to starvation) would not have been out of the question.

You’re right that culture often places a high premium on men’s ability to provide. When it goes so far as to say that men are worthless when they don’t or can’t provide, that’s part of human culture rightly dubbed “the world” in the trio including the flesh and the devil. It’s hard to judge another person’s circumstances, but it’s always safe to assume that they have something of value to offer. It’s very good what you do for your father, and I hope that life is going well with him now or will soon.

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Fri, 16 Feb 2018 17:14:40 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8721#comment-5691Luminas here, on Grave of the Fireflies. I can’t help but find the statements above about the Japanese and suicide…a little callous, honestly. If you were in a situation so bad that you were at risk of starving to death, and a person you felt responsible for as an older sibling *died,* and they had what (if you know your deaths) is an indescribably brutal death, and you didn’t…how in the heck would *you* feel? Of course you’d be consumed by guilt. Of course the book you wrote would focus deeply on your own self-perceived personal and moral failings. Especially if all this happened when you were a scared child.

Additionally, “Germany” and “Japan” as military entities consisting of generals and soldiers might’ve “deserved” or at least “expected” retaliation in kind, but I think I’m generally in agreement (and maybe even slightly more fervent) on the point that their civilians didn’t. The U.S. dropped a freaking *atomic bomb* on two Japanese cities, and their collective unconscious has been traumatized by it ever since. I don’t think we’re in any position to judge.

“But, Seita’s life had value irrespective of Setsuko’s existence! Why could he not live for any of the other suffering people around him? Aren’t we all part of one human family? He had a duty to survive!”

Because that’s not what we’ve taught men to do, in almost any human culture. We’ve taught men that their only worth is in providing for the people around them. If they can’t do that, they’re told through implicit and explicit means that their lives are worthless. That is the tragedy that leads so many of them to an early grave, the reason my Dad craves my presence when he’s at his lowest point. (If there’s one thing that’s true about me in perpetuity, it’s that I’m kind of smol <__<). And it's the reason the possibility that the women in their lives may become stronger than they are threatens them, in American society. Although something similar is happening in Japanese society, too.

All that said, hyperbolic as I might be at this exact point in time, you're right that ultimately you can't make another person into the end or purpose of your life. You need a God, because only a God can possibly be strong and vast enough to fill that yearning in your heart.

]]>Comment on Seven Anime for All Souls’ Day by ospreyshirehttps://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/seven-anime-for-all-souls-day/#comment-5689
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 22:15:18 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8347#comment-5689Sure thing. There are some great things about it. Let me know when you watch that anime series. It would be an interesting conversation starter on your blog if you talk about the themes.

]]>Comment on Day 6 of 10 Days to 500 Anime: Grave of the Fireflies by medievalotakuhttps://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/day-6-of-10-days-to-500-anime-grave-of-the-fireflies/#comment-5688
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 21:48:01 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8721#comment-5688Grave of the Fireflies is a very sad film. I didn’t know that they had adapted the story into a live action film. I’m curious as to how well the story transfers over into live action, but I can’t imagine seeing it for a while at least.

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Thu, 15 Feb 2018 21:42:41 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8347#comment-5687I know a lot about the anime but still need to watch it myself. It sounds very interesting and people have frequently recommended it to me. Maybe I’ll get that done soon.

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Thu, 15 Feb 2018 21:40:51 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8711#comment-5686I’ve heard stories of how it was in the old days. Compared to today, I used to think that my own experience of having to pay $100 for a 24 episode series was bad. But other anime writers and bloggers talk about spending $80 for a VHS tape with three episodes and no subtitles. Well, thank God for free market capitalism and that those days are over!

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Thu, 15 Feb 2018 21:28:12 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8721#comment-5685I didn’t know that about Grave of the Fireflies. The Japanese have oddly romanticized suicide for centuries now. Especially in WWII, the Japanese soldiers preferred death to capture and were killing themselves in droves. So, I can see why the writer depicted a story like this: one does get a sense of Seita’s death being a waste–like much of what happens in war.

]]>Comment on Days 4 & 5 of 10 Days to 500 Anime by suburbanbansheehttps://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/days-4-5-of-10-days-to-500-anime/#comment-5675
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 07:07:41 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8711#comment-5675(Very cool that you watched a raw.)

]]>Comment on Days 4 & 5 of 10 Days to 500 Anime by suburbanbansheehttps://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/days-4-5-of-10-days-to-500-anime/#comment-5674
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 07:07:04 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8711#comment-5674In the old days, we didn’t have subs or dubs! And we didn’t understand Japanese, either! We just had to go by the pictures and the tones of voice, on our crappy 7th generation videotape. And after a while, we got fanzine books of plot summaries if we were lucky and connected.

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Tue, 13 Feb 2018 06:58:05 +0000http://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/?p=8721#comment-5673Re: well-known stuff, it’s important to remember that the writer of the original short story actually did live through WWII and actually did lose an adoptive sister to malnutrition. The difference is that in real life, he didn’t die. And in some ways, that’s deprecated in Japanese society; so he rewrote his own life in the short story. That’s why the author compared it to the old double-suicide “ripped from the headlines” plays about doomed lovers.